School Nurse

Healthy Lifestyles

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Nurse Notes

An open letter to the Patrons of Beaver County School District:

As you may know, the flu season is coming and I’m writing today to ensure you the employees of the Beaver County School District are taking steps to reduce the spread of the flu. We want to keep our schools open to students and functioning in a normal manner during this flu season. But, we need your help to do this.

We are working closely with the our local health department, the hospital and the Southwest Health Department to monitor flu conditions and make decisions about the best steps to take concerning schools. We will keep you updated with new information as it becomes available.

Here are a few things you can do to help us keep our school functioning as usual.

·Teach your children to wash their hands often with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub. You can set a good example by doing this yourself.

·Teach your children not to share personal items like drinks, food or unwashed utensils, and to cover their coughs and sneezes with tissues. Covering up their coughs or sneezes using the elbow, arm or sleeve instead of the hand when a tissue is unavailable.

·Know the signs and symptoms of the flu. Symptoms of the flu include fever (100 degrees Fahrenheit, 37.8 degrees Celsius or greater), cough, sore throat, a runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, and feeling very tired. Some people may also vomit or have diarrhea.

·Keep sick children at home for at least 24 hours after they no longer have fever or do not have signs of fever, without using fever-reducing drugs. Keeping children with a fever at home will reduce the number of people who may get infected.

·Do not send children to school if they are sick. Any children who are determined to be sick while at school will be sent home.

If the flu season becomes severe, the school district may take additional steps to prevent the spread such as:

·conducting active fever and flu symptom screening of students and staff as they arrive at school.

·making changes to increase the space between people such as moving desks farther apart and postponing class trips, and

·dismissing students from school for at least 7 days if they become sick.

For more information about helping prevent the spread of the flu, visit www.flu.gov, or call 1-800-CDC-INFO. We will continue to notify you of any additional changes to our school’s strategy to prevent the spread of flu.